Last year John http://coop-fly.blogspot.com/ caught a few pike with me on a twin tailed yellow deer hair popper so I tied one with the yellow foam head as well.
Showing posts with label bass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bass. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Square head poppers
These square headed poppers have intrigued me so I tied a few up in different sizes for largemouth to pike to musky. I'm looking forward to see what kind of pop and disturbance they make. I used similar flies last year with deerhair heads that caught fish but didn't stay above the surface for long especially with an intermediate line. I'm thinking these will float high even with an intermediate. Shouldn't be long until I can give them a try if we ever get some warm weather. Need to tie a few up for stripers too although the green one has a mackerel feel to it and should do the trick.
Last year John http://coop-fly.blogspot.com/ caught a few pike with me on a twin tailed yellow deer hair popper so I tied one with the yellow foam head as well.
Directions and more info on tying these flies can be found on the Zero 2 Hero blog.
Last year John http://coop-fly.blogspot.com/ caught a few pike with me on a twin tailed yellow deer hair popper so I tied one with the yellow foam head as well.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Deep water flies
I sat down to tie some flies to be used for pike and bass in deeper water. Last spring when there was strong wind the shallow water got very murky from the wave action. The bite for pike really turned off under those conditions so we felt like we were forced to fish deeper water. Maybe there was some other presentation we could have tried under those conditions in the shallow water but we couldn't come up with anything that worked for us.
I tied these flies up to fish deeper in these conditions, around submerged weed edges later in the summer and rocky points and shoals for bass. They will also hopefully fish a little deeper where there is current in some of our larger rivers.
Initially I wanted to tie a whistler but started layering saddles, marabou, bucktail and flash up the hook shank similar to a lot of the other flies I've been tying lately. I finished off the fly with a grizzly hackle over a few extra wraps of lead behind some lead eyes. Unweighted this style of fly really swims so it should be interesting to see what kind of action they have with the weight up front and the jig hook.
I tied these flies up to fish deeper in these conditions, around submerged weed edges later in the summer and rocky points and shoals for bass. They will also hopefully fish a little deeper where there is current in some of our larger rivers.
Initially I wanted to tie a whistler but started layering saddles, marabou, bucktail and flash up the hook shank similar to a lot of the other flies I've been tying lately. I finished off the fly with a grizzly hackle over a few extra wraps of lead behind some lead eyes. Unweighted this style of fly really swims so it should be interesting to see what kind of action they have with the weight up front and the jig hook.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Fly Tying Jamboree II Photos
Had a great time at the jamboree on Saturday. About 10 people showed up to try tying a few bass and pike patterns. I thought there might be a few more experienced pike fisherman in the group but I found out that not a single person in the group said they had caught pike before so they had plenty of questions. I did my best to answer even though I have only one season of chasing them myself. We chatted about where I have been fishing and what time of year and conditions I found to be most productive. Hopefully I gave them enough good info to get them started. We discussed the controversy that surrounds pike in the state since they aren't native and spreading into more traditional cold water fisheries. Overall we had a very enthusiastic and friendly group.
The first fly we tied was a 3/0 red/white banger variation using white yak hair for the tail and wing at least that is what I was going for. I like this style of fly and want to make sure and tie some more for this year. I haven't seen any tied with yak hair and wanted to see how it would come out. pikeflyfishingarticles.blogspot.com blog has many great variations of this fly including a step by step tutorial.
The next fly was a black bass gurgler. I've been fishing a fly very similar to this with a spun deer hair head and wanted to modify it to have a gurgler style head instead.
The last fly tied was one of my favorites from last year. It is based on the hang time musky fly which I keep tinkering with. I have yet to even fish for muskies but the local pike and both smallmouth and largemouth bass eat them up no matter how big I make them. Most lakes in the area have large populations of yellow perch so I tend to tie a lot of perch colored patterns. I just like the perch colors too. So much prettier than the typical shiner or most suckers.
Even though most of the people in the class weren't pike fisherman many do tie for stripers and they commented on how they could fish some of these same patterns for them or incorporate some of the tying techniques into their striper patterns.
I have some friends that come over every other Tuesday night to tie. This week we plan on doing some crease flies and whatever else comes to mind.
The first fly we tied was a 3/0 red/white banger variation using white yak hair for the tail and wing at least that is what I was going for. I like this style of fly and want to make sure and tie some more for this year. I haven't seen any tied with yak hair and wanted to see how it would come out. pikeflyfishingarticles.blogspot.com blog has many great variations of this fly including a step by step tutorial.
The next fly was a black bass gurgler. I've been fishing a fly very similar to this with a spun deer hair head and wanted to modify it to have a gurgler style head instead.
The last fly tied was one of my favorites from last year. It is based on the hang time musky fly which I keep tinkering with. I have yet to even fish for muskies but the local pike and both smallmouth and largemouth bass eat them up no matter how big I make them. Most lakes in the area have large populations of yellow perch so I tend to tie a lot of perch colored patterns. I just like the perch colors too. So much prettier than the typical shiner or most suckers.
Even though most of the people in the class weren't pike fisherman many do tie for stripers and they commented on how they could fish some of these same patterns for them or incorporate some of the tying techniques into their striper patterns.
I have some friends that come over every other Tuesday night to tie. This week we plan on doing some crease flies and whatever else comes to mind.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday fishing
Got the little boat out close to home this Sunday to enjoy some of the nice weather. Since when is it 80+ degrees out the beginning of May? The goal was to find some spawning crappies or smallmouths but I found neither. I must have fished about ten different coves and the main lake shoreline casting to all the visible structure and never saw a crappie. I worked some of the other good looking spots for smallmouth but only managed to catch a couple off of some random trees laying in the water. I was quite impressed with how the firetiger streamer swam though. One of the smallmouth I caught struck on the first 2 casts and I finally hooked him on about the sixth cast when he completely engulfed the fly that time. I definitely need to tie up some more of these flies especially for stripers. I have a few ideas for color combinations. The catching wasn't so great but it gave me an opportunity to try out some of my new flies.
I caught this cute little pickerel also. I wonder what will happen to these little guys as pike continue to spread in the local waters. They don't grow very big but they provide some good action still and they are actually a native fish! We don't have many of those around anymore.
I spent some time following this tank around. He wasn't too concerned with me. I saw one other almost as big later on in the day.
Hard to believe I'm resorting to posting pics of pickerel and turtles. I either need to get out after some pike or the stripers better show up soon.
I caught this cute little pickerel also. I wonder what will happen to these little guys as pike continue to spread in the local waters. They don't grow very big but they provide some good action still and they are actually a native fish! We don't have many of those around anymore.
I spent some time following this tank around. He wasn't too concerned with me. I saw one other almost as big later on in the day.
Hard to believe I'm resorting to posting pics of pickerel and turtles. I either need to get out after some pike or the stripers better show up soon.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
First pike trip
Getting around to putting up a few pics from the first pike trip of the year which was April 3. Headed out with a few good friends of mine, John and Paul, who both just love to fish. All of us have caught a few pike before but none of us really know what we are doing so we went out in search of pike on a hunch and a few rumors in a lake were we know people did well catching them through the ice this past winter. We decided to fish some of the shallow coves adjacent to where these pike were caught hoping they were up spawning or at least enjoying some warmer water. Leading up to the trip we had a few pretty cold, rainy, windy days. We tried to find the warmest water in the lake but without much sun to heat up the surface and shallow water the lake was a pretty consistent 45 degrees no matter where we went. We started out in a shallow bay that averaged about 4' deep with some of last years reeds still poking above the surface. The trolling motor on John's boat which has fought us in the past decided to have another bad day so we mostly motored up wind and drifted across the bay. John picked up a nice smallmouth that we were a little surprised to see up in the old weedbeds this time of year but no pike so far. We decided to follow a channel that lead out of the bay we were fishing.
I don't remember so much blue sky that day but I guess the sun poked through every once in a while. It sure made a difference when it did. The conditions were a little challenging without the sun and with a good steady breeze and the clouds spitting at us occasionally. We all didn't care a bit and were just happy to be flinging some feathers around.
The first pike of the day showed itself by slashing at my fly as it came up to the boat. Not a huge pike but respectable by my standards. At the same time John was in the middle of his retrieve and as his fly came through the same area the pike struck again but was only hooked for a brief moment before going free. Even though we both blew the opportunity we took seeing the pike as a good sign that we were on to something. Not too far down the bank from where we had our first action to my surprise I was on to something. After a brief tug of war I brought a pretty solid Larry to the boat.
Not the species we were after but I'll take it. We continued on up the channel without seeing much about as far as we wanted to go before the current really started to pick up. I made a cast and after a few strips of my fly I felt a bump. I didn't hook anything but I was pretty suspicious that I had a strike. I picked up my line and fired another cast out to the same spot and this time hooked up. I wish it were the 20# pike I had swimming in my imagination but it ended up only being an average pickerel sized pike instead.
John picked one up about twice that size on the next cast. A lot of the pike up here have some really nice yellow markings which make them quite pretty. I'm not sure if that is common or not. That was it for the day; 2 pike in 2 casts brought to the boat, a couple bass, a few near misses and a hell of a good time on the water. The catching wasn't so great but the fishing sure was.
I don't remember so much blue sky that day but I guess the sun poked through every once in a while. It sure made a difference when it did. The conditions were a little challenging without the sun and with a good steady breeze and the clouds spitting at us occasionally. We all didn't care a bit and were just happy to be flinging some feathers around.
The first pike of the day showed itself by slashing at my fly as it came up to the boat. Not a huge pike but respectable by my standards. At the same time John was in the middle of his retrieve and as his fly came through the same area the pike struck again but was only hooked for a brief moment before going free. Even though we both blew the opportunity we took seeing the pike as a good sign that we were on to something. Not too far down the bank from where we had our first action to my surprise I was on to something. After a brief tug of war I brought a pretty solid Larry to the boat.
Not the species we were after but I'll take it. We continued on up the channel without seeing much about as far as we wanted to go before the current really started to pick up. I made a cast and after a few strips of my fly I felt a bump. I didn't hook anything but I was pretty suspicious that I had a strike. I picked up my line and fired another cast out to the same spot and this time hooked up. I wish it were the 20# pike I had swimming in my imagination but it ended up only being an average pickerel sized pike instead.
John picked one up about twice that size on the next cast. A lot of the pike up here have some really nice yellow markings which make them quite pretty. I'm not sure if that is common or not. That was it for the day; 2 pike in 2 casts brought to the boat, a couple bass, a few near misses and a hell of a good time on the water. The catching wasn't so great but the fishing sure was.
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